Another Black Eye For the Bush Administration

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

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President Bush may have dodged an attack by incoming shoes during last weekend’s now infamous Iraq press conference, but it seems White House Press Secretary Dana Perino was somewhat less fortunate. According to reports (hers included) Perino sustained a black eye when a US Secret Service agent (code named ‘Keystone Cop’) toppled a microphone stand during the subsequent melee.


What, Me Worry?

As is customary with this president, George Bush just shrugged it all off. What’s another pair of shoes for a man who has cost so many innocent people their legs? What’s another black eye? Bush is without conscience. Why should he care if a stranger tosses their shoes in his direction? He did, after all, encourage ‘them’ to “bring it on”, didn’t he? I just don’t think he was anticipating a size 10 wingtip. Nonetheless, the old adage stands… if the shoe fits, wear it.

As for Perino, her physical wounds will heal soon enough. It is the black eye to her own legacy with which she should be most concerned. Her days as mouthpiece for the lamest of all ducks are quickly drawing to a close. When that chump of a duck limps out of the Oval Office for the last time on January 20th, Dana Perino will find herself left to the wolves. Just ask Scott McClellan. He could write a book on the subject.

Of course, Perino’s own snide demeanor has undoubtedly left many with reason to dream of knocking black circles around her beady little eyes. Irony has not been lost on the fact that it came down to the Secret Service to accomplish the dirty deed. What a long, strange trip it has truly been. The truth hurts, I guess, or at least in this instance, it smarts a little. My advice to Dana? Just do what you always do… ignore it and it will go away.

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

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A Quick Fix, Before You Go

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

blogment - National Newswire - The Infinite Echo

“We have fixed what was not working, and we have listened to those who know best: our military commanders -- and the Iraqi people“.
George W. Bush, December 14th, 2005 (the day before the Iraqi elections).

Fixed it. All better now.

Bush supporters are so damn stupid! All I can figure is that none of them can read. The economy is tanking hard, the housing market has already collapsed, and for the want of common sense, the war in Iraq is lost. Still, Bush supporters remain adrift in denial. They would rather die painful, humiliating deaths than admit they were wrong. Ignorance is bliss!

So go ahead, hold the course, and take your mindless lemmings with you. You can run but you can’t hide. Oh, and by the way, you can send your own children off to die, because I would personally whup all of you before I would let my son run off to fight an unjust war. I pick my fights smartly.

Offended? I certainly hope so! It is my intention to shake the fruit from the branches, although I am well aware the grapes have rotted on the vine. You Bush supporters are beyond help. You're just pathetic.

Bush hate? Perhaps. The term is subjective by nature. Still, I don’t deny loving my family and country too much to stand around and do nothing while the Bush administration destroys our country. Bush should have been stopped long ago. He should never have been re-elected. Fool me once, shame on you! Fool me twice, shame on me!

Don’t tell me impeachment is not an option. Of course it is! Don’t tell me September 11th changed everything. Of course it didn’t! The bottom line has not changed. George W. Bush has participated in war crimes, crimes against humanity and war profiteering. Halliburton is profiting billions of dollars, while more and more lives are being lost. And what for? You tell me. Bush has changed his excuses so many times his word is worthless.

Yes, stupid is indeed, as stupid does. Just ask any marine. The Iraqi elections were a joke back in December of 2005, and they remain a joke today. A very, very sad joke.

Wake up, Bush supporters… the joke is on you!

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

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Confronting the Violent Truth

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

blogment - National Newswire - The Infinite Echo

Early Monday morning, an emotionally disturbed student brandishing two handguns methodically shot and killed thirty-two of his fellow students at Virginia Tech before turning one of the guns on himself. It is believed to be the worst shooting spree in US history, and president George W. Bush expressed deep sadness.

Meanwhile in Baghdad…
On Wednesday, four separate car bombs detonated throughout the city, killing at least 190 persons, and injuring dozens more. George had no comment.

However, it was the same George W. Bush who recently claimed violence was decreasing throughout Baghdad, further suggesting the drop in violence was the result of his so called “troop surge”.

What Bush doesn’t mention is the fact that prior to the invasion of Iraq, Baghdad had a lower violent crime rate than Washington DC, our nations capital, and a stones throw from Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech.
A nation mourns the loss of thirty-two promising lives. Make that thirty-three. The flag of our nation has been lowered in their honor. We are grief stricken.

Baghdad.
Citizens clean up after a day in which 190 persons died violently in the streets. This particular day was unusually deadly for Iraqis. The average daily death count in Baghdad is around one hundred. But 190 in one day? Why, that’s nearly six times the single worst shooting massacre in US history.

Forgive me, as it is not my intent to marginalize the loss suffered by so many as a result of the Virginia Tech massacre. It was a terrible event, and it has effected every American.

But how can we still be clinging to the notion that we have somehow improved the quality of life for the average Iraqi?

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

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Cheney Feeling the Heat

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

blogment - National Newswire - The Infinite Echo

Could vice president Richard Cheney soon find himself under increased legal scrutiny for his personal role in the Valerie Plame scandal? Experts say yes. Indeed, the heat is always highest closest to the flame and Mr. Cheney is already experiencing meltdown.

Cheney has never really demonstrated any palpable respect for his position as vice president, or for the laws of our government. His is about him and nothing else. The unlawful invasion of Iraq has proven to be a massive debacle for the Bush administration, costing tax payers billions in un-accounted for US dollars… much of which vanished while under the care of Cheney’s cronies and fellow war profiteers, Halliburton. Cheney has nothing to say about the missing dough. Perhaps he doesn’t actually think it’s missing. The vice president doesn’t have much to say about his spurious ‘Energy Task Force’ these days either. After all, a quick glance at the available task force documents tell a sad tale indeed. America has been taken for a ride.

The ‘outing’ of Valerie Plame was business as usual for this administration. Dick Cheney does not react favorably when his motives are questioned, a fact I can personally attest to. It is nothing new for him to set the dogs after anyone he believes may be interloping. Richard Cheney does not play nice, nor does he play fair. By all accounts, the man is simply not a straight shooter.

Still, the heat is on, and Mr. Cheney is starting to get a little crispy around the edges. Speaking from both sides of his mouth, he touts the British pullout from Iraq as a positive sign of improved conditions, while at the same time claiming a similar pullout by US troops would embolden the enemy, as though every angry Iraqi thinks with a singular mind. The man isn’t stupid… he is criminally dishonest. My guess is that a pullout of British troops will not adversely affect the bottom line at Kellogg Brown and Root, where-as any pullout of US troops would cut overall funding, and Halliburton’s ever so lucrative cash cow would cease to milk. Don’t kid yourself… Richard Cheney butters his bread with the blood of the fallen.

Still, like any heartless vampire, lonesome Dick cannot survive long under direct illumination, and as such he can be expected to do whatever he deems necessary to assure his activities are conducted among the shadows. Nonetheless, Dick Cheney is feeling the heat, a rather ironic twist for a man who has made a career out of scorching the ground beneath his feet.

Editors note:
Richard Cheney and members of his staff are regular readers of National Newswire, although it’s supposed to be a secret. As a consequence, I expect to be ‘outed’ for one thing or another before this administration packs it in. Actually, I’m flattered. One would think with the war and all, those fellows would have more important matters on their minds

Que Sera, Sera, I suppose.

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

blogment - National Newswire - The Infinite Echo

The Curse of War

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

blogment - National Newswire - The Infinite Echo

When we are asked to support our troops in Iraq, I can’t help but wonder precisely which troops, and under what circumstance? Obviously not every US soldier serving in Iraq deserves my unwavering support.

As with any conflict of this nature, bad things can happen to good people, and sometimes good people do bad things. I don’t lack compassion for our young men and women who have been unjustly thrust into chaos, but I have equal compassion for the residents of Iraq who are suffering as a result of the occupation, which may I remind you, remains an international war crime.

We Americans love to believe we are the world’s police, welcome or not. Our arrogance has long overshadowed our sense of reason. Indeed, if the US is the world’s police, we entered Iraq without a search warrant, killing innocent people in the process.

Obviously, when German soldiers were slaughtering the Jews they were following orders.
They indubitably believed what they were doing was necessary, no matter how blatantly evil. I can’t imagine they thought much about the heinous nature of their crimes; after all, such would have amounted to treason.

Right about now, I predict many of my readers are understandably aghast at my comparisons. I don’t blame you. Here’s a suggestion: wake up and smell the coffee!

You see, I have no reason to believe every Nazi who participated in the holocaust was born to kill Jews. It was a deplorable idea, thrust upon them by desperate, deranged superiors. I don’t condone their actions by any means. What happened was wrong and that is precisely why I feel compelled to compare the holocaust to the invasion of Iraq. The Iraqi’s are not better off now than before the invasion. Quite to the contrary, Iraq is smack dab in the middle of it’s very own holocaust, one of our making.

Whatever.

Call it a civil war if you must. In fact, call it whatever you damn well please; a rose is a rose by any other name. I doubt very seriously Iraqi mothers who must bury their dead children every day, really feel inclined to debate semantics.

I am and will remain a patriotic American, but I’m not blinded by the misdirected rhetoric. I know better than to pretend every US soldier in Iraq is behaving heroically.

So where then should I draw the line? Should I support those who participated in the Haditha massacre? Should I support the soldiers who gunned down innocent lives, destroyed schools and hospitals, looted museums, tortured captives, raped and murdered children in front of their families?

If right now you are attempting to justify such conduct with some platitude, think again.
War is hell? Collateral damage? The spoils of war?

How about crimes against humanity?

Face it folks, good people are dying in Iraq. Some of them are Americans. Likewise, some very bad things have been done in Iraq and like it or not, some of it, by Americans.

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

blogment - National Newswire - The Infinite Echo

An Open Letter to President George W. Bush

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

blogment - National Newswire - The Infinite Echo

Mr. Bush,

With each passing day it becomes increasingly obvious your administration lied to the world about key evidence leading up the invasion of Iraq. The invasion was in clear violation of US and international law, including the Geneva Accord, and has resulted in the destruction of Baghdad and the deaths of nearly a half a million Iraqis.

As president of the United States, you and you alone shoulder the ultimate responsibility
for crimes committed by members of your administration, including war crimes. Under your command, bombs were dropped on mosques and hospitals, civilians were murdered in cold blood while they slept, and innocent people were repeatedly tortured and beaten.

Saddam Hussein was hung by the neck for similar crimes, but in fact, the invasion has already resulted in a greater number of deaths. Why then should not yourself and other members of your administration face similar charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity?

Should you in fact find yourself charged with such crimes, will you voluntarily co-operate with the international criminal courts, or will you become a fugitive of justice? Furthermore, in the event that you are found guilty of these crimes, a very real possibility, will you accept the authority of the courts? And what if you are sentenced to death?

Do you really believe you are above the law? Do you really think you deserve to get away with what you have done?

I don’t.


B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

blogment - National Newswire - The Infinite Echo

Slander Becomes Us

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

blogment - National Newswire - The Infinite Echo

Do you recall back in the day,
When every country station in the USA,
Spent the better part of every radio hour,
Deriding anyone and everyone with the good sense,
To appose a bad war?

Americans are truly a pathetic lot. Slander becomes us.
Quick to demonize others, we stubbornly resist accountability for our own transgressions.
When the Bush administration was selling its case for invading Iraq, most Americans never questioned the glaring inconsistencies, choosing instead to embrace nationalist jingoism, demonizing anyone and everyone who expressed opposition. At best, it was profoundly foolish. Unfortunately, it was also criminal.

The Bush administration never possessed compelling evidence about Saddam’s wmd capacity. In fact, international weapons inspectors repeatedly warned the Bush administration about their rush to judgment, only to get the bums rush themselves. Bush wasn’t interested in truth or accuracy. He wanted war and he got what he wanted.

Apparently, Bush and his cronies believed the larger the lynch mob, the more difficult it would be to hold anyone accountable down the road. Countries who refused to participate in the lynch mob found themselves ridiculed and marginalized. French Fries became Freedom Fries; the United Nations was characterized as corrupt and cowardly and much of Europe soon found themselves referred to by Bush cronies as “Old Europe”, out of touch and out of the loop.

Home grown dissenters fared no better. I’m sure you all remember what happened to the Dixie Chicks. Well, I’ve got news for you… The Dixie Chicks were right.

And so was John Kerry when he warned our young men and women about the perils of getting “stuck in Iraq”. Denial won’t make it less so. No matter how insulted you may have been by Kerry’s remarks, his words were sincere, and accurate. Face the facts; Iraq is no place for a good man to die.

How often have you heard the story about a judge who gives some kid a choice between going to jail or joining the army? The obvious implication being the judge in his infinite wisdom has determined the kid is unsuitable for society, but is somehow suitable for the armed services, where he’ll be given a loaded gun, and encouraged to embrace the consequences.

So go ahead, demonize John Kerry for telling the truth. Denial changes nothing. Iraq remains a quagmire and our soldiers continue to die. Oh, and be sure to trash the Dixie Chicks while your at it. After all, that’s what Americans do.

So go now, be offended. Failure in Iraq is not an option, it’s a fact. Victory is out of the question. The longer we stay, the worse the situation will become.

John Kerry’s only mistake was in backing down from his statement. I on the other hand, will do no such thing. In fact, I will wrap this up with a piece of advice:

Bring it on!

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

blogment - National Newswire - The Infinite Echo

Hubris and Folly (Revisited)

The Infinite Echo
B. Thomas Cooper
Editor

Hubris and Folly.

Just two of the words used by Thomas E. Ricks, senior Pentagon correspondent for The Washington Post to describe the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq and its management of the war and subsequent occupation.

And those were the nice words.

In his book, Fiasco, Ricks also accuses George Bush of being misguided, and incompetent, providing a plethora of disturbing detail, guaranteed to cause the reader great anxiety.

“President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 ultimately may come to be seen as one of the most profligate actions in the history of American foreign policy,” Mr. Ricks warns. “The consequences of his choice won’t be clear for decades, but it already is abundantly apparent in mid-2006 that the U.S. government went to war in Iraq with scant solid international support and on the basis of incorrect information — about weapons of mass destruction and a supposed nexus between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda’s terrorism — and then occupied the country negligently. Thousands of U.S. troops and an untold number of Iraqis have died. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent, many of them squandered. Democracy may yet come to Iraq and the region, but so too may civil war or a regional conflagration, which in turn could lead to spiraling oil prices and a global economic shock.”

Indeed!

Sectarian violence is all the rage now, and the afore-mentioned “regional conflagration” is warming up backstage. This as members of Congress prepare to battle the president over his determination to increase US troop levels in Iraq by twenty-one thousand, at a time when the majority of Americans would like to see the troops brought home.

Saddam has gone to the gallows, but violence in Iraq continues. Yesterday, 70 people were killed, and another 170 wounded as a result of a deadly attack on Mustansiriya University, north of Baghdad. Scores were killed or wounded in other attacks throughout the region. Iraqi civilians continue to die in huge numbers. Over thirty-four thousand Iraqi citizens were killed as a result of the violence in 2006 alone. So far 2007 is shaping up much the same.

The situation in Iraq is dire indeed and no-one suffers more from the carnage than the Iraqi’s themselves. I certainly hope they have enjoyed their brief dance with Democracy.


The Infinite Echo